Do or D-I-E-T

dietDiet has two distinct meanings today. We tend to think only of “restrictive (in some way) plans for the purpose of weight loss”.

Diet also (perhaps more correctly) means “a way of eating” from the Greek word ,diaita meaning a “way of life”.

There’s a clue. To be successful we need only to seek food that supports our desired way of life.

And there lies the problems with diets, of the former connotation. They don’t work because they are the antithesis of “a way of life”.

Let’s explore: D-I-E-T

D: Deprivation, not generally an ingredient in success!

When I used to decide to “go on a diet” to “lose a few pounds” the first thing that happened was intense cravings for the very foods that I had foresworn. I’d scour the cupboards looking for partial bags of chocolate chips or go spelunking in the freezer for a forgotten bag of Christmas cookies.

Prohibition doesn’t work. Saying you can’t have it is entirely the wrong approach.

I know that bread bloats me, makes me feel like I have a rock in my gut, and makes the scale go up as much as eight pounds. My body is telling me bread is poison.

I no longer “can’t have bread”. I “choose” not to eat bread because I would rather not experience those symptoms. That attitude adjustment has made it easier to avoid bread.

Diets don’t work because they start with deprivation.

I: Impossible: most diets are impossible to sustain, contradicting the age-old wisdom that what we eat is integral to the fabric of our lives, diaita!

Diets fail to help people reconnect to their food. Sustainability becomes impossible.

Many popular diets are effective until the restrictions are lifted and their clients find themselves back on the weight-loss roller coaster.

Diet companies make billions of dollars each year selling their products. They have no motivation to help you understand why you overeat. If you knew the secrets, they would lose your future business.

Shareholders would not be Impressed! If you have troubles sticking to a diet, you’re not alone. They are impossible!

 E: Elusive: the goal is elusive because it’s the wrong target.

We are not sick because we’re fat. We’re fat because we’re sick.

Weight loss isn’t the goal. It’s the by-product of improving our health.

We have poisoned and continue to poison ourselves on many fronts. Our food, air, and water assault our systems continuously. Our bodies are ill-equipped for the constant bombardment.

When we diet and lose weight, we often feel lousy or downright sick as the toxins leave their fat-cell barracks. Without understanding the process, dieters give up when they have these symptoms. Knowing why they feel distress can help them persevere to the rewards of good health.

If your weight loss goals are elusive adjust your target. Cultivate an environment of good health and the pounds will fall away.

T: Temporary. Most diets simply can’t last.

Many diets impose limits all but guaranteeing participants will fail. Especially grievous are the meal replacement programs.  Dieters struggle to eat in the real world. Instead of blindly replacing meals, “drinking” their calories they would benefit from learning more about making healthy choices.

Ironically, most meal replacements are rife with sugar, an addictive drug for those trying to be healthy and reach a healthy weight.

Sadly, there’s simply too much money at stake for diets to go the way of the dodo. If people knew about diaita , the secret they truly hunger for, the diet industry would suffer greatly.

But then perhaps demand for organic produce would rise and the economy would make up for lost diet revenue. One can dream!

“Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet!”

Is this your New Year’s vow, year after year?

If D-I-E-T as a “restrictive eating plan for the purpose of losing weight” is in your lexicon, I urge you to rethink your approach. Choose a way of life, a diaita. Your eating will follow and your body will repair itself.

Finally, here are a few Tips for Adopting a Better Diet:

  1. One thing. Don’t try to change decades of bad habits in one day/week/month. Pick one new thing at a time. It can be “eat more fruit” or “eat more salad” or “replace chips with popcorn”.  Everybody can do one thing. Then pick another. In no time your bad habits are changed.
  2. Choose food that is processed as little as possible. Cooking, freezing, drying are all examples of processing though some are less damaging to food than others.
  3. Reconnect with your food. Know your farmer. Get your hands dirty and grown your own.
  4. Read labels and understand that food manufacturers actively seek to fool you into thinking their food is healthier than it is. They use hollow language like “natural”, which means nothing. They use five types of sugar so sugar doesn’t have to be listed as the main ingredient. Buyer beware. Vote with your dollars: refuse to buy products that threaten your health.
  5. Buy ingredients, not products with ingredients. Do not be fooled by low-fat, low-calorie, low-sugar claims. These words typically describe “foods” with the least nutrient value. Low fat products usually have more sugar; low calorie foods often are filled with inedible ingredients and low sugar means sugar substitutes, which the body thinks of as poison.

Finally don’t despair. Changing a way of life takes practice and involves repeated missteps as you carefully pick the best stepping-stones. You will slip but the definition of success is falling down seven times and getting up eight times.  Never say diet!

Butter vs. Margarine

butterpicRevised July 2013

Margarine is the generic term used for butter substitutes. Its history goes back almost 200 years to the discovery of margaric acid from whence margarine derives its name. Over the years various ingredients have been used to concoct a less expensive spread than butter including beef tallow, whale, seal, and fish oils, vegetable oils and sometimes even a little butter.

Both butter and margarine are water-in-oil emulsions; they have similar calories, depending on the amount of water in the margarine or “spread”. Sadly, most people erroneously think they are interchangeable.

Margarine consumption surpassed that of butter in the late 1950’s when some scientists proposed a correlation between the consumption of saturated fats and blood-serum cholesterol levels with heart disease. Doctors began advising their patients to use margarine instead of butter.

Many people still believe in this supposed cause and effect but the explosion of heart disease in our society would suggest otherwise. Food manufacturers seized the opportunity to increase profits by using cheaper inferior ingredients while proclaiming the health benefits of their products.

Margarine is a manufactured “food”, generally accomplished by passing hydrogen through (often) inferior quality oil in the presence of a nickel, cadmium, or palladium (all toxic heavy metals) catalyst. The addition of hydrogen to the unsaturated bonds results in saturated bonds, effectively increasing the melting point of the oil and thus hardening it.

This process creates trans fats, which the body does not recognize as food and ironically are now known to contribute to heart disease and other diseases like cancer. Furthermore, the oil is extracted at high temperature, which damages the oil and destroys the vitamin E in it. The advertisements and the packaging for margarine are usually deceptive lies, stating it contains ‘polyunsaturated oil’, when the processing saturates or partially saturates the oil.

Butter has many nutritional benefits, where margarine has few. Butter contains antioxidants, which help offset free-radical damage to cells. It is a source of vitamin A, D, E, and K, calcium, selenium, and conjugated linoleic acid, which helps maintain lean body mass, prevents weight gain and may reduce certain cancers. Butter fat helps the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals. And it tastes better.

Although many people are sensitive to cow’s milk dairy products, often butter is well-tolerated because butter is almost a pure fat, and does not contain many of the allergens found in other milk products.

 

One issue is the treatment of dairy cows. They are often pumped full of antibiotics and hormones which naturally land in the milk.

 

The argument that margarine helps control cholesterol is a myth as most cholesterol is manufactured within the body; a maximum of about 4% of all cholesterol comes from the diet.  Cholesterol is the raw material for the adrenal stress hormones and the sex hormones. The body often reacts to stress by producing more cholesterol allowing the body to make more stress-fighting hormones. Therefore it is quite likely that the consumption of trans fats stresses the body to produce more cholesterol.

 

The human body is not designed to consume manufactured food but thrives on a diet of whole, real food. Butter is a natural food and one of the best sources of important fat-soluble vitamins. You will pay more for butter, but nutritionally, for its purity, and its taste it is well worth it. Just remember, all things in moderation; the body is not served by eating any fat, including butter, by the pound.

 

 

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/margbutt.htm

Aviva:

http://www.healthcastle.com/butter-or-margarine.shtml

http://www.homemakers.com/health-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-diet/margarine-vs-butter-the-debate-continues/a/27133

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002114.htm

This site is sponsored by margarine producers who proclaim the “debate is over”.  It is included in this list in the interest of balance:

http://www.choosemargarine.com/latestSpread_marg_vs_butter.html

http://www.drlwilson.com/Articles/butter.htm

http://www.chatham-kent.ca/community+services/Public+Health/keeping+you+healthy/healthy+eating/Butter+or+Margarine.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine